dark green units were called Vets Village (or "Fertile Valley" because of the large number of
children living there). Fifty additional
units were added later.
This "village" was laid out with one main street and several branching ones as the
buildings were to be placed no closer than 50 feet from each other. These apartments were so
similar that their occupants occasionally got confused. Prof. John Rollins tells a story about a
party there one spring evening when one partygoer stayed on and onáPlong after everyone else
had departed. When finally the hosts asked him politely to leave, the guest looked startled and
replied, "My God! I thought we were at my house!"
The first housing units providing accommodations for four families each were turned
over to the College on March 1, 1947, and these first 16 families moved into their new homes
in Vet's Village. Across Clarkson Avenue two dormitories were erected for single men, one
accommodating 16 and the other, North Hall, 80 men.
Additionally, fraternity houses were leased and other homes were rented for faculty and
student dwellings. When the flood of vets had subsided, Clarkson began leasing these Vet's
Village apartments to newly hired faculty. Then, in 1953, the College began replacing them
with new apartment buildings.
Opened in 1954, each of these four new buildings along the top road and two along the
bottom road had a three-bedroom apartment on each end, and two two-bedroom apartments in
the middle; each apartment had its own cellar and heating unit. It was an ideal place for young
faculty to live, for standing far off the Back Hannawa Road, and having broad open spaces for
the innumerable children to play in, these buildings were well protected. The faculty residents
affectionately referred to the area as "Diaper Hill," for, in 1957, for example, 54 children,
ranging in age from newborn infants to high schoolers, resided in 19 of the units; the other five
were occupied either by bachelors or by childless married couples. It also was known as
"Snoopy Loop" because the proximity of the apartments made privacy a rare commodity.
Classrooms.
Postwar pressure of enrollment forced Clarkson to provide additional classrooms
as quickly as possible after the surge of veterans descended on campus in 1946. By 1947, the
pressures were extraordinary.
At registration time, when it was discovered that sections of many courses were more
than double their capacity, emergency measures were undertaken. Some classes were so
crowded that students were sitting on window sills and some were standing. To relieve the
pressure, the school pressed into service the Presbyterian church meeting rooms, with the result
that 20 hours a week were devoted to the study of English and history at the Presbyterian
Church Extension.
In the meantime, Clarkson purchased a building at Camp Endicott, R.I., had it
dismantled, shipped by truck to Potsdam, and reassembled to provide 11,000 square feet of
additional classroom space. This building contained 10 classrooms, 19 offices to accommodate
40 faculty members, a faculty lounge and lavatory, and several student lavatories.
Additional new classrooms were added. The first of them were constructed directly in
back of the old Surveying Building behind Old Main, and took in the entire area back to the
property line of Sigma Delta fraternity. The east end of the parade ground was converted into a
parking lot for faculty and students.
Glee Club.
Professor Robert John McGill III reactivated the Glee Club in March.
